00145. Targets found!
After the kids were put to bed for the night, Jacob settled onto the couch with Daniel. After about a minute of comfortable silence as they snuggled Jacob asked, “You ready to tell me what happened at the meeting today?”
Daniel snuggled a little closer to Jacob as she asked, “Was it that obvious?”
Jacob leaned over slightly and kissed her forehead before he said, “I wouldn’t be a good husband if I didn’t notice my wife was lost in thought all night. I know the contract was signed, so what else happened today?”
“I was offered a job.”
Jacob turned slightly to look into Daniel’s eyes as he excitedly said, “That’s great! Is that what’s been on your mind… Or were you worried about how we’d take care of the kids with you working again?”
“Kinda…”
Jacob smiled as he said, “Then don’t worry about it, I can always cut back my hours at the shop to help out. Plus you know everyone else wouldn’t mind helping out either.”
Daniel smiled before she kissed Jacob on the cheek and said, “Thanks, but taking care of the kids won’t be an issue. Let me show you the job offer, so you can see why.”
Daniel stood up and went to the computer desk where her briefcase was. After she collected the blue folder and sat back down on the couch, she handed the folder to Jacob and said, “Read that.”
Jacob smirked and opened the folder as he said, “You know I won’t be able to understand half of this stuff.”
Daniel shook her head slightly before she leaned back onto his arm as Jacob started to read over the documents. It took him a few minutes but when he finished it he asked, “You’re going to accept this right?”
“I wanted to talk with you about it before I made my decision. Plus there is another issue with the job offer.” Daniel said.
Jacob nodded as he said, “You're worried your parents will find out and force the company to fire you.”
Daniel laughed lightly before she said, “No, I’m positive the owner doesn’t care about my parents or even making them an enemy. It might be because he’s a meta-human, but I’m not sure.”
“Oh… Wait, he’s a meta-human?” Jacob asked as he turned to look at Daniel.
Daniel nodded before she said, “Yeah, he even left the meeting by making a portal to California. At least that’s where his assistant said he went.”
“That sounds kinda convenient, just make a portal where you want to go… Is the issue that the owner is a meta-human?” Jacob asked.
Daniel shook her head as she said, “No.”
Jacob smiled as he said, “Good, cause the woman I married wouldn’t judge someone for being a little different. If that was the case, you wouldn’t have married me!”
Daniel nudged Jacob with her shoulder as she said, “You’re an idiot.”
Jacob quickly kissed Daniel on the lips before he said, “I’m your idiot.”
Jacob settled back as he asked, “Well what’s the issue then?”
“The more I think about it, the more it seems too good to be true.” Daniel said.
Jacob pulled Daniel a little closer as he said, “They say good things happen to good people and you're one of the best people I know.”
Daniel chuckled lightly before she said, “Oh, that reminds me, I wanna show you something.”
Daniel brought Jacob over to the computer and turned it on as she said, “Remember my brother I told you about?”
“Which one? The next family head? The backup in case he fails? Or the spoiled jackass?” Jacob asked.
Daniel pulled up Vibe on the computer and typed in the search bar for a moment as she said, “The spoiled jackass.”
As she brought up the video Jacob read the title and asked, “What exactly is this?”
“My brother acting like a jackass and getting what he deserves for it.” Daniel said with a smile as she hit play.
“Really? How did your parents not remove this video from getting out?” Jacob asked as he watched the silent video play.
“It’s the same reason I was offered a job, the owner of Vibe isn’t afraid of my parents.”
As the video played sound finally kicked on and Jacob said, “Wow your brother really is a piece of work.”
Daniel nodded as she said, “I didn’t hear the audio early when I watched this… But he definitely got worse over the ten years I haven’t seen him.”
“That’s Ezekiel, the owner of Vibe.” Daniel said as she pointed at the screen and someone in the video said, "How about you just get us out of here instead of setting the mood, Ezekiel."
A couple moments later ‘Don’t Stop Me Now by Queen’ started to play and a fight broke out as the music played. Jacob smirked as he said, “I gotta admit, he definitely set the mood.”
Daniel nodded along as the video played. When it ended she turned to look at Jacob and said, “That’s who I would be working for.”
Jacob smiled and said, “He seems like a fun boss and he has good taste in music.”
It was a few days later when Daniel called up Ezekiel and accepted the job offer. Within a few days, Daniel was given a work computer along with a cellphone. Ezekiel then sent her a couple of contracts that needed to be gone over and told her to take her time as there wasn’t a rush on them. Even with her not rushing, she still finished both contracts in a week…
Someone else also contacted Ezekiel about a job around that same time period, but it wasn’t for Vibe. It was Helan Cho and she wanted to know more details about the job offer. Ezekiel gave her the standard information and said anything else was classified. She debated for about a day before she called back and agreed to do the evaluations to see if she qualified. By the end of the next week she was in the medical base meeting everyone she would be working with.
Besides a new person joining the medical wing, Orochimaru brought some good news to the group working on the clone project. The books and medical equipment Ezekiel took from the vampire lord contained a lot of important information. Apparently the coldness they felt, the darkness ability, healing and incredibly tough skin was something the vampire lord gave themselves. They experimented on meta humans for years to gain those abilities and killed a lot of people in the process. The vampire lord was obsessed with improving themselves and worked at it for centuries. All the books Ezekiel acquired ended up being the notes the vampire lord made over that time, and Orochimaru was currently spending all his time reading them. Apparently they reminded him of the times when he used to experiment on people himself, at least that is what he told Ezekiel.
vvvvv
Quantum realm… Somewhere.
Janet woke up and prepared for the day before she stepped out of her room and found Kang in the kitchen area of the hut they shared. She moved towards the kitchen table as she asked, “What’s for breakfast?”
Kang turned around with two bowls and said, “I have blue stuff with some crushed green stuff as seasoning.”
Janet weakly smiled as she said, “Just what I wanted.”
As they attempted to choke down their breakfast Janet said, “I think the first thing I am gonna eat when I get home is a large breakfast or eggs. bacon and waffles.”
Kang stuffed another spoonful of blue goop into his mouth and swallowed before he said, “I’ll have a nice medium rare steak, mashed potatoes and a good beer.”
“If you close your eyes this almost has the texture of mashed potatoes.” Janet said with a smile before she said, “If you ignore the taste and smell.”
Kang rolled his eyes before he asked, “So what do you want to try today?”
Janet thought about it for a few moments before she said, “I think we’re close, that last attempt seemed to work. Maybe if we tweak the formula?”
Kang finished the rest of his bowl and stood up as he said, “Sounds good to me.”
For the rest of the day they worked on repairing Kang’s ship, well it would be better to say his ship’s damaged engine core. Hours on end without rest they tried and tried, but nothing seemed to work. They worked with pieces of scraps they collected and threw together into tools… If only they had better equipment they would have been done by now Janet thought more then once each day. She would be back home with Hank and their daughter and Kang would be free to travel the universe again.
Janet was pulled out of her thoughts as Kang said, “How about we call it a night, this will still be here in the morning when we get up.”
Janet looked at the new experiment they started before she said, “Sure.”
With that Janet and Kang headed back to their own rooms and turned in for the night. As they slept a tiny spec appeared on the horizon and made its way towards the hut they used. As morning came around Janet and Kang awoke and started their day. As they started to work on the new experiment, they didn’t notice the thing in the distance as it slowly moved closer.
It was about an hour later when the drone finally made it to the hut and scanned the area. When it pinged life signs in the area and humans at that, Hank and the others in the base were alerted. Hank popped up from falling asleep in his monitoring chair again and groggily looked at the screen. It took him a few moments to realize what the drone sensors picked up, but after he did, he was wide awake.
Hank brought up the drone in question and took manual control to look around the area himself. He saw a hut in the distance and a seat that rested in a large golden half orb… That was Kang’s ship… Hank let out a relieved sigh as he realized she was still working with Kang.
As he moved the drone closer to the hut, Ashina Uzumaki, Wong, Steve and Peggy entered the room. As they glanced at the screen Steve asked, “You finally found her?”
Hank nodded as he said, “I think so.”
Hank flipped a switch to activate the microphone and speaker on the drone before he cautiously asked, “Janet? Janet, are you there?”
Janet and Kang ran out of the hut to see a high tech drone floating in the air. Janet, with a hint of tears in the corner of her eyes, asked, “Hank?”
“Yes dear. I came to find you.”
Janet started to cry as she looked around in the distance and asked, “Where are you?”
Hank glanced at the map before he said, “Pretty far away, but give me a few hours and I should be able to get there.”
Janet smiled as she said, “Okay, I’ll be waiting right here for you!”
As Janet wiped the tears from her eyes Kang cleared his throat. Janet glanced back at Kang before she said, “Oh, Sorry. Hank, this is Kang. He was also trapped down here by an accident and we’ve been working together to get out of here.”
Kang nodded to the drone as he said, “Nice to meet you, I’m Kang. I’d like you to know there hasn’t been a day when Janet didn’t tell me a story about you or your daughter. You two are basically the only thing she talks about each day.”
Hank studied the man for a moment before he said, “Thanks for helping out Janet. Just sit tight and I’ll be there soon to get you both. I am going to put this drone in standby mode so I can track its signal and not get lost. I will see you both soon.”
Janet nodded as the drone lowered to the ground and a small dish opened on its back. Hank glanced at the image of his wife on the screen once more before he said, “Let's get ready to move.”